Hasta La Gadget!

Because I grew up with video games, pixel art looks great to me whether it’s made of paint, thread or LEGO. But nothing makes pixel art pop more than its original medium: light. Case in point, this nifty interactive picture frame that is simply called PIXEL.

Invented by Al Linke, PIXEL is an LED display that shows pixel art images or animations. The default build of the PIXEL consists of a frame with 1,024 LEDs arranged in a 32 x 32 matrix, so it’s been designed to scale images or animations to 32 x 32. Linke partnered with several pixel artists to make art especially for PIXEL. They come in the form of free Android apps that you can use to beam the images or animations via Bluetooth. Yep, there’s currently no iOS app, which is unfortunate, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that changes soon.

PIXEL can also be used as a mirror when the LEDs are turned off. It also has a proximity sensor, which programmers can use to toggle or change the animation automatically.

You can reserve a ready-made PIXEL by pledging at least $229 on Kickstarter. PIXEL has been a huge success on the fundraising site. It’s already earned nearly $25,000 (USD) in pledges as of this writing, way more than the $8,000 target and with 48 days more to go.

Linke is also selling a parts kit with only 512 LEDs for the much lower price of $99, but Linke admits that the existing art was made only for the 1,024 LED version. Fortunately you can just create your own art and then send it to PIXEL via an Android device. Or you can just mount a CRT TV on your wall.

[via Hacked Gadgets]

Look at these beautiful Game of Thrones inspired wedding invitations. These Stark and Targaryen designs should really rock your coming nuptials. They were created by Etsy seller Nimbi Designs and are pretty classy.

They have the house sigils, some appropriate text, and all the right fonts. Your guests will love receiving these – even if they don’t actually have your names on them. Of course, if you are a Game of Thrones fan, then you know there aren’t many happy endings. And weddings. Good god, you know how weddings go in Westeros. You are a braver man than I.

But if you have to take the plunge, you might as well do it in style and send out some of these invitations.

[via Nerd Approved]

For those of you who enjoy the Metal Gear franchise, you might be familiar with a little mech that goes by the name of REX. Well, LEGO builder Rags naRock is also quite enamored of the giant robot, and decided to build himself a LEGO-fied version.

But this isn’t any ordinary little LEGO build. This epic creation has articulating joints, and wheels to move it along the ground. This incredibly detailed version of the bipedal tank has every little detail you’d expect, other than an actual nuclear power source and real weapons. I don’t think LEGO is offering those yet – not even in their Technic kits.

You can see how the different components of this mammoth model move in the video clip below:

While it might not look like it, it cost Rags naRock over $900 in LEGO bricks to assemble this mammoth beast. And if you want to build your own, you can grab the LEGO Digital Designer files here. I ran the parts list through BrickStore myself, and it looks like the bricks alone cost about $918.40(USD), plus the many hours of labor it will take to assemble this beast.

[via Albotas]

The prophesied Mayan apocalypse didn’t happen. Mostly because there was no such prophecy. But on the off chance that it did happen, Flickr user Matt Armstrong aka monsterbrick made these post-apocalyptic war horses out of LEGO. The fact that he was able to make them even though he could be dead makes them even more impressive.

Matt made nine horses for hell’s babies to play with, each of them with a design in accordance to their name:

Ride to Matt’s Flickr page for more pictures. These should be Easter Egg items in the next Darksiders.

[via Ian Brooks]

If I told you that you could wear a grenade around your neck without risk of explosion, would you do it? Well, thanks to one jewelry artist, you can hang a tiny little hand grenade (finger grenade?) around your neck with no worries.

Mathmatiks‘ Pineapple Grenade Pendant is one of the few necklaces that I think would look good whether you’re a guy or a girl. They’re available in either a dark gunmetal tone or a lighter silver tone for $50(USD) each. I prefer the gunmetal design as it’s more faithful to the look of an actual grenade – though these ones still aren’t filled with gunpowder.

If you’re looking to splurge on your explosive projectiles, you can also get a single pineapple or frag grenade, each done up in shiny black with an actual 22k gold-plated handle for $80 each.

While I love these, I’m not sure what the TSA would have to say to you if you wore them through airport security.